The victim, and his assailant lived in the same block. The victim was a man with learning difficulties. He had about 163 convictions (most recently for attacking a woman who was recovering from a stroke). In 2001/02, he was living in a drug den in Scotland, and was basically the drug gang's punchbag (according to the police). His drug gang mates, who went around telling everyone on the estate they were UVF, thought it would be amusing to drug him with GBH, strip him, then set fire to his genitals, filming it. Afterward he fled back to Belfast, where they tried to kidnap him. Some reports indicate he might have been brain damaged because he was beaten up in prison. I'm not sure about that. Either he is the unluckiest (depending on your perspective, because he's also still alive) man alive, or more likely, this was not a random attack. By all accounts, he was trying to help his assailant settle in. His neighbours describe the victim as a bit annoying but who didn't deserve to be attacked. I think when the police attended the scene, identified him, knew him, concluded it was some screwed up druggie thing out of Trainspotting, rather than an immediate danger to the public. It would be interesting if during the trial there are toxicology reports. The attacker, when taken to hospital with a hand injury, claimed he killed somebody, then decided he didn't know if he was dead, then, for good measure, decided to threaten the radiographer (indicating that likely, the Hurling stick had done some damage)/ My mother was a psychiatric nurse, and would tell me about some of the awful stories of her patients. Mostly you would be full of sympathy. But one case was horrific. A big guy came in, sectioned (ended up at Rampton). He had smoked cannabis, and probably a bunch of other stuff. Decided his baby son was Satan, and tried to twist his head off. Killed the son, didn't quite pull off the head. Serious psychotic delusion, maybe drug induced, maybe drug magnified. Details will emerge. I think the attacker was already known to the police, for reasons unrelated to his immigration status.
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